Champions leagues finalists play out bad tempered draw

Saturday night in Dortmund saw a dress rehearsal of the Champions League final at Wembley in a few weeks time, As the top 2 sides in Germany met in the league. The Bundesliga title race was over a while ago as the Bavarian giants Bayern Munich are currently 20 points ahead of 2nd place Borussia Dortmund, So this clash wasn`t played as a big title winning match as both sides decided to make changes to their squad resting players ahead of their duel in the Final on May 25th.

Pic from : Goal

Before the game the Borussia Dortmund fans unveiled a not so flattering banner towards Mario Gotze who has signed a pre - contract to move to their rivals Bayern Munich next season and it`s fair to say the banner told him what the fans of the Yellow & blacks army thought of him, The banner translated apparently means: "Striving for money shows how big your heart really is. P*** off Goetze”

pic from Yahoo Sports

Borussia Dortmund took the lead after 10 minutes in as Julian Schieber put a cross in back post and was met by Kevin Grosskreutz, Who volleyed home at close range past Manuel Neuer in the Bayern goals for a 1-0 lead much to the delight of the 80,000 crowd or those that wore Yellow & Black of Dortmund inside the Signal Iduna Park.

Dortmund were playing some nice football and you wouldn`t know that there was a 20 points gap between them Bayern as it was Dortmund that looked the most adventurous going forward.

pic from:YAHOO SPORTS

Mario Gomez levelled the match at 1-1 in the 23rd minute, when a cross down on the Dortmund left was swung in from Rafinha and Gomez diverted the ball to the far corner hitting the inside of the post and going in past Roman Weidenfeller to make it 1-1. For a while on Bayern looked too take control of possession in the game as the home side struggled to get back in the game, But they couldn`t do anything with the ball as Dortmund defense stifled them. 

Bayern had a chance as Luis Gustavo who had acres of space played a ball to Brazilian midfielder Rafinha and his first time cross was met by Mario Gomez again but this is time his header went over the bar.

Rafinha who was the most creative player in the first half and was driving the force for the away side ,but when he was on the attack he slipped and in the process gave away the ball. Robert Lewandowski then raced towards the penalty area went past Daniel Van Buyten and Jerome Boateng but his shot was saved by Manuel Neuer and stopped the Polish striker from giving the home side regaining the lead again.

Bayern Munich then had another chance just before half time break as a nice move from Alaba gave him extra room as he spun away in midfield, He then put Gomez through he got passed Santana and his effort was then saved by Weidenfeller who stuck his leg out and it went away for a corner kick.

After a calm first half with no aggressive play that is normally occurs between 2 teams challenging for honours the second half was a different kettle of fish however.

Bayern thought they should have been awarded a penalty as Conento chipped the ball forward to Claudio Pizarro who took it brilliantly, he then cut inside the penalty area and as he was about to pull the trigger he was tripped up by the Serbian defender Neven Subotic and the referee played on much to the Bayern player’s anger.

Bayern again were the aggressors in the second half as Mario Gomez did a one-two with Pizarro , Gomez and Neven Subotic gave chase to the loose ball with the Serbian defender stretching his leg out and just got enough on the ball to stop Gomez taking a shot on the Dortmund net.

pic from:GOAL.com

Borussia Dortmund then were awarded a penalty as Nuri Sahin struck the ball and as Jerome Boateng jumped with his arms when going up and was penalized for handball when on replays it looked to have hit his shoulder so was unlucky with the decision.

Robert Lewandowski stepped up to take the resulting penalty and his spot kick was put to the goalkeepers left but was saved by Neuer who got down low to push it away for a corner kick and make a marvellous save.

Dortmund had a chance of their own when an in swinging corner came in and Santana rose up well with a free header, but his header went over the crossbar and we remained at 1-1.

Then in the 64th minute tempered erupted as Blaszczykowski and Rafinha chased a loose ball, Rafinha threw an elbow in the face of Jakub Blaszczykowski who went down holding his face, The referee booked the Dortmund player for some reason and then gave Rafinha a second yellow for the elbow and so received his marching orders with a red card. 

Both sets of Players came together as Blaszczykowski was incensed by the elbow and held back as he was wanted to get at the Brazilian midfielder, players were shoving and then as he was walking off down the tunnel shaking his head at his deserved dismissal , the Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp said something towards him which brought a Bayern coach staff to go face to face with Klopp on the touchline along with Rafinha who was getting involved as well.

Eventually the benches calmed down as the officials stepped in to calm things down and play continue. The tackles were flying in now as the game was getting dangerously close to exploding now, Santana was angry with Thomas Muller who was looking for a penalty with hardly any contact and as play broke up field the other way, David Alaba made a rugby tackle on Julian Schieber near the touchline and was rightly booked for it.

Schieber then broke free through on goal after Marco Reus a substitute broke from midfield but his pass towards him was too heavy and Neuer collected and a good possible chance went begging for the home side.

Dortmund got players up field searching for this winning goal against the 10 men of Bayern Munich, they pushed but the defending was excellent and showed why they are the best side in Germany and can prove on the 25th they are the best side in Europe too against the same opposition, final whistle blew to an exciting second half and setting up for a mouth-watering Champions League Final clash between these two Powerhouses of German football.